Brand new to the sport...

And i know everyone on here must get this question alot, and I know the answer must be on these forums somewhere. I just can’t find it.

But im just wondering, what should somone new too sprinting do for training?

A little background, ive been a weight lifter for a little over a year, and was looking to cut when I started playing soccer to do so. With soccer, I found what I enjoyed most was simply running people down, catching up to them and over taking them. Now, i dont have much endurance, but i found this great fun, and have since done some sprinting races just for intramurals at university. Come in last, but i love it. But i’d love to be better, and any training/workout program tossed my way would be most helpfull.
Thanks, and I appreciate any help

P.S.- I hit the weights 4 times a week as is, just so you know. I have no problem changing it to suit a sprinting program.

Use the search function to view forum archives. There would be an abundance of information that would answer your questions.

I did, and I found many similiar topics, all with basically 2 types of responses.
either
a) interval training
which is great, but i have no idea how often, for how long a day, and what kind of plyometric exercises i should incorporate along with it.

or much more common, this response

b) Go do a search.

once again, if everyones told to do a search, not much info for people new to the sport.

try and get the basics of what you can
like…
mon - sprints/weights
tue - tempo
wed - sprints/weights
thur - tempo
fri - sprints/weights

vary the volume and intensity according to how you respond to this type of training over the weeks. Or you can start of with high intensity training TWICE a week like if the first template is to tough…

mon - tempo
tue - sprints/weights
wed - tempo
thur - sprints/weights
fri - tempo

again vary the volume intensity accordingly. Keep record of your progress and ask questions eventually someone will answer, but you should still look around to find relevant information related to your training.

I strongly recommend you start a training journal and stick to it, some will help you along the way and the journal will help you keep track of your progress and give you hindsight. You can also read the training journal section and look for those that had success. You should check out smarrs training journal or those from fabio, that is detailed and should give you some insight. Always keep reading in this thread to keep learning and let you stay on top of things.

thanks i appreicate the help, but only one thing… I feel like a fool asking, but whats tempo? I understand it in terms of the musical sense,… but not for this

tempo is low intensity or mid-high intensity in other cases, of long sprinting volumes. It is going at 55-75% of your max sprinting speed for volumes usually at 1000-2000m with short rests in between runs, the runs are usually on grassfields you run in segmants of 100-200m where an example would be you running 100m to the other end of the grassfield rest 20-30seconds then run back 100m rest and repeat, you can change it up by doing 8x100m or 5x200m to make it challenging you can shorten the rest or while your resting at each end of your run you do some situps or pushups for general strength, it is categorized in the lower intensity training which is used to condition the body, lower bodyfat, and used as a recovery tool for your high intensity days which is the day you sprint fast, and lift heavy or do anything that is tough on the nervous system for that matter. Tempo is not hard on your nervous system so its a good tool to prevent injury and set you up to recover for your next training session because if you did high intensity all day you will bring yourself to injury. Also you run these with good sprinting posture and mechanics to help you get the technique down and feel at ease with your form.

when you read the training journals like i said you will see many of them having tempo in it.

they will probably write…

100+100+100++
100+100+100++

  • = 50meter walk
    ++ = 100meter walk

the pluses are resting before you run out the 100meters at 55-75%. The rest is subjective and depends on the individuals condition.

Ahhhh that makes alot more sense… ive encountered the + before, and its confused me to no end.

So i already do heavy lifting 4 days a week, so hows this sound

monday weights/sprints
tuesday weights/sprints
wednesdays tempo
thursday weights/sprints
friday weights/sprints
saturday tempo
sunday off.

Or should i throw in a tempo instead of sprints on one of the weigh days?

again im telling you should start a journal, but lifting that many times along with sprints will take a toll on your body. Since your a novice i suppose you can get away with it to a certain extent. However beware of what your body is telling you. It is usually not recommended to do sprints two days in a row, sprinting is a different animal then weights in the gym, it can take alot out of your nervous system and you might burnout, and you wont see any gains, not in the sprinting as well as weightlifting. You should try and do more full body workouts like squats,bench,military or pulls like the lat pulldown, and if your strong enough (dont know your max lifts) then you should learn how to the olympic lifts like the clean or snatch. you can do general strength circuits in the gym during tempo days, but dont lift heavy on tempo days, tempo days is a mode of recovery for your body.

Remember you have to find a balance that gives the benefit to sprinting if you want to get fast, if you focus to much in the weightroom you wont see any improvements, the focus is sprinting and weights is used as a tool to that goal. I remember charlie saying in a manner that sprinting makes you stronger in the weighroom, then weightlifting making quick on the track(not direct quote).

how is your conditioning? you being a beginner your primary focus should be in getting your conditioning up. How fast you at in your sprints?

make sure that you don’t do weights before your sprint training. you will hinder your performance and increase your risk of injury. you should always be fresh when you do your speed work…

i was thinking sprints 3 pm, weights 8 pm. And all together wont be a terrible shock to my system, im use to lifting weights, and i eat/supplement properly

thats fine, but adding sprints into the mix you will notice things quickly. Dont lift weights like you usually do, now if you want to improve the other you have to work your weights around the sprint work.

Understood. Im will to make that sacrifice. And as for plyometrics…why should i throw that into the mix?

Just get a coach and join a club and get training. You need someone to help you in the flesh.

Not really available to me… not in the least

dont worry about plyos very much, if you want to do them dont do more then 20-30 hops, it is intense on your nervous system which is primary part of an organism you want to nourish so you can keep making gains. Dont ask me questions about the central nervous system(CNS) very comlicated thing to understand.

The best thing that will help you if you dont have access to a track club is ordering charlies stuff online if you have the money. This is your best investment cause you will have visual tools to help you and start an individual program, it will also help you understand more the training components. Lots of questions in GPP are asked here so by watching the video and reading in here you will learn plenty.

thanks, this forums been a big help. Im going to start a journal, and ill keep you posted